Snow White and the Huntsman: A Visually Stunning but Flawed Retelling
In this ambitious reimagining of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, a striking visual style clashes with a sluggish plot. Walt Disney isn’t likely to be spinning in his secret crystal coffin anytime soon. Perhaps the director should have focused less on who he was making the film for and more on what the film was actually about.
The king’s new wife, Ravenna, murders him and imprisons his daughter, Snow White. Seven years later, Snow White escapes, and Ravenna hires a Huntsman, drowning his sorrows in alcohol, to track her down and bring her back. Gnomes, beasts, a troll, and an apple all become involved, culminating in a final battle.
“Once upon a time…” Therein lies the rub. The very word “once” limits your audience too much. You can’t forget about the girls who have moved on from “Twilight,” of course, but if you’re only telling Snow White’s (Kristen Stewart) story, how do you attract their boyfriends and brothers to the cinema? So, you need a Prince Charming (in reality, a mini-Duke William played by Sam Claflin), slender and with a bow, and a Thor (Chris Hemsworth) who has traded his hammer for a massive axe. And what about the older female viewers? Give weight (and a touch of sympathy) to the Evil Queen (Charlize Theron), who fears wrinkles. And the husbands of these viewers? Turn the dwarves into brawling drunks, more likely to be found passed out on the floor of an Irish department store than cheerfully working in diamond mines. This spectacular, impressively grounded (and Mediterranean) adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, released hot on the heels of Tarsem Singh’s silly and saccharine “Mirror Mirror,” aims not high, but rather wide, unfortunately at the expense of the story itself.
“Snow White and the Huntsman” lacks a strong perspective and suffers from an excess of characters. Among other things, we are hinted that there are actually eight dwarves. Usually, a flurry of characters is observed in sequels when it comes to blockbusters, but here there are terribly many characters from the very beginning. Few deserve the right to appear on the screen, as happens, say, in “The Avengers.” The characters of the dwarves are not written at all, and it is not very clear why they are needed at all in this version of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, if the gloomy, grubby, and for some reason Scottish-accented Huntsman does all the work for them, while exuding a stern sexuality.
The Dwarves and the Queen Steal the Show
But that doesn’t mean you won’t want to see more of the dwarves. The shortcomings are compensated by the excellent casting, and watching actors like Ian McShane, Nick Frost, Toby Jones, and Ray Winstone perform is a pleasure. Unsurprisingly, the dwarves carry most of the lighthearted scenes. “We were promised gold, and what did we get? Crap!” whines the floppy-eared Tiberius (Frost) as the team wades through a sewer. “Just look at that one! That one looks like mine!” grumbles Trajan (Winstone), shaking a Mr. T-esque bleached hairdo. You get the idea.
Another perfect casting choice is Theron as Ravenna. An icy Hitchcockian blonde seeking to repay everyone who has ever humiliated her, the Queen embodies cold, coiled rage thanks to a subtle, almost serpentine economy of movement. It’s a convincing body language for a woman who knows her expiration date has long passed. Even the Queen speaks almost like an old woman – in a slightly lower voice and slightly slower than necessary. The feeling is eerie and captivating, to the point of thinking that the “man in the mirror,” which is one bright, smooth special effect, is just a figment of the Queen’s brain, as old as ancient parchment.
Kristen Stewart’s Snow White Falls Flat
It’s a shame we can’t lavish the same praise on her pure-hearted nemesis. It’s not that Kristen Stewart is completely unsuitable for the role of Snow White. It’s just that she needs to be rid of all the nervous tics that the actress has involuntarily acquired over five or six rounds of filming as Bella. Stewart endlessly does the same thing: first looks as if she has something nasty in her mouth, then smiles as if she is in a little pain. The impression is that before each scene, Snow White bites into that poisoned apple.
A Promising Debut Marred by Story
Perhaps this is one of the indicators that an ambitious project was carried on the shoulders of a novice director – Rupert Sanders. Before that, Sanders shot commercials, and they showed the buds of the visual style that blossomed in the film to its full potential to the horizon. The director was clearly inspired by Gilliam, Guillermo del Toro, and – especially – another prodigy who came from the world of advertising, Ridley Scott. (Sanders even filmed the final battle scene an hour’s drive from a very similar location to Scott’s “Robin Hood.”)
There are simply masterful scenes in “Snow White and the Huntsman.” Particularly noteworthy is Snow White’s escape into the hate-blackened Dark Forest: the runaway princess inhales fungal spores and experiences the most heinous trip of her life. The grass cover becomes a carpet of dead songbirds, vague shadows lurk in the twilight, and a demon with webbed wings screeches from the distorted forest canopy. Later, we are virtuously transported to where the exhausted Ravenna, having just transformed from a flock of crows back into a human, beats against the ground, her cloak and robe of black feathers spreading in a shiny oil slick, and the feathered rags agonize like seagulls in the oil-covered Gulf of Mexico.
Despite all the shortcomings, this is a promising debut. We will be waiting for Sanders’ next film. However, judging by the thick hints of a sequel, it will most likely be “Snow White and the Huntsman 2.” Because, of course, “to live-be” only once is not enough.